Kukla's Korner Hockey

In a statement, McGinn said about two weeks ago a representative of Chris Hansen introduced him to potential investors in an NHL team, who also met with a number of Seattle City Council members.

And McGinn said last week he spoke with NHL Commissioner Bettman.

"Our message to all parties has been the same: We believe we can support an NHL team as a tenant at KeyArena, and as a potential tenant of a new arena, subject to all parties reaching agreement on terms," McGinn said.

McGinn went on to say "As recent news reports indicate, it appears the NHL is taking the new ownership proposal seriously. But we also know from experience that it may be some time before an NHL team is located in Seattle, as the home city for the Phoenix Coyotes is working to keep them. We will keep the public informed as we learn more about the possibility of the NHL in Seattle."

Friday reports surfaced stating the framework is in place for a lease agreement that would keep the Coyotes in Phoenix.

Comments

I lived in Seattle for years. I actually started a meetup group to encourage people to get together and watch hockey. We only had a few active members. Truly, there is not a built in hockey fanbase there. When I would go to the Thunderbirds games, only a small portion of the seating would actually be used, and you could always get a ticket. On top of that, the Key Arena is an aging mess that no one would want to watch an NHL game in.

Key Arena is only a temporary home. They plan to do some modifications to enhance the hockey set up. The buidling is by no means a mess, it was a completely new building in 1996 and has been maintained well. There are two WHL based in teams in the Seattle market, the Thunderbirds who play in Kent and the Silvertips in Everett. These two very mediocre WHL teams average 10,000 per game total between the two. Seattle has a 100 year history of hockey. The MLS Sounders average 38,000 per game for soccer and an NHL team would easily sellout every game. The TV market is the 14th largest in the US with 3.9 million people in the Seattle/Tacoma metro area, Vancouver is 120 miles North of Seattle for a good rivalry. Portland is 130 miles south of Seattle with a large hockey fanbase. The six junior hockey franchises in Washington state and Portland Oregon average 27,000 fans per game in total showing the strength of the NW for hockey. Finally Seattle is the corporate headquarters for Microsoft, Amazon, Nintendo, Starbucks, Boeing Commercial AC, Peterbilt, Real Networks, Weyerhauser, Nordstrom and few hundred high tech companies. Seattle can and will support the NHL.

Seattle has wonderful fans that embrace their teams. Although the city is big on soccer the recent success of the Seattle Sonic should encourage other leagues like the NHL. And they have a tailor made rivalry with Vancouver being just north of the border. Now if we can just move the Panthers to Milwaukee and convince the NHL that the Blackhawks will survive without Wisconsin.